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Some Special Interests => Heraldry Crests and Coats of Arms => Topic started by: nellie d on Sunday 09 January 05 12:01 GMT (UK)

Title: Free family crest downloads
Post by: nellie d on Sunday 09 January 05 12:01 GMT (UK)
Has anyone got a link to a site with free family crest/coat of arms downloads?
I've done Google searches but i can't find anything...and I know they must be out there.

Cheers
Nellie
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Ticker on Sunday 09 January 05 13:19 GMT (UK)
Hi Nellie

Just did a quick search myself and came up with these possibilities.  Apologies if you've already seen and discounted them.

All Family Crests (http://www.allfamilycrests.com/)

Free Coats of Arms (http://www.freecoatsofarms.com/)

Genealogical Journeys (http://www.genealogicaljourneys.com/coatsofa.htm)

Best wishes

Ticker
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: nellie d on Sunday 09 January 05 15:13 GMT (UK)
Thanks Ticker,

The surname I'm interested in isn't on these sites....maybe that's because my lot are all bumpkins and we haven't got one!!!!!!! ;D

Nellie
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Ticker on Sunday 09 January 05 15:42 GMT (UK)
Hi Nellie

That's a pity!  My lot - the Tymon's don't have any either if that's any consolation.  Contrary to popular belief (and what commercial organisations who want to sell you one say!) many families don't have any coats of arms.  I refer to coats of arms in the plural as they actually relate to individuals rather than families.

Best wishes

Ticker
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: kennaugh on Monday 24 March 14 16:29 GMT (UK)
If you give the following page a link back, they will send you a free family crest / coat of arms

http://www.4crests.com/freecoatofarms1.html
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: behindthefrogs on Tuesday 25 March 14 11:06 GMT (UK)
If you are entitled to use a coat of arms, you should be able to trace your family back to someone who was granted that coat of arms.  If you can't then it is probable that there is no coat of arms which you are entitled to use.

These companies that provide these coats of arms either free or more probably sell them have simply found some with the same or a similar name who was granted a coat of arms.  You have no entitlement to use them even if they sell them to you.

The crest which sits on top of the helmet in a coat of arms is similarly a personal emblem although the inheritance is sometimes different.  Crests by themselves are often used on items like cutlery where there is no room for a coat of arms.
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: panic on Wednesday 23 July 14 19:53 BST (UK)
Most of these sites just list them without referencing them. I've known there is a crest for my surname for decades (from a stand at a fair), wonder how you find out to whom the crest was awarded?
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: KGarrad on Wednesday 23 July 14 20:25 BST (UK)
Please read the first FAQ on the College of Arms website:

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/resources/faqs


And, be aware! It is still illegal in Scotland to use a coat-of-arms to which you are not entitled! ::)
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: panic on Wednesday 23 July 14 21:03 BST (UK)
I have read that before.

Okay to reword the question  ::), I have known that individuals who so happen to have the same surname as mine have been awarded coats of arms, wonder how you find out who was granted.
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: KGarrad on Wednesday 23 July 14 22:12 BST (UK)
This website has some information:
http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/ukgrantsofarms.htm


Or see if your local library has a copy of "Armorial Bearings" by A.C. Fox-Davies.
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Guy Etchells on Thursday 24 July 14 08:29 BST (UK)
Please note my remarks relate to Coats of Arms in England & Wales only as other jurisdictions have different rules.

Most early Coats of Arms were assumed rather than granted.
Assumed meant the person simply developed a design and started using it. Over time that design was recognised as belonging to him and his supporters.
Later (1530 to 1688) these designs were ratified by Heralds during their visitations (tours of inspection).

It is still legal in England and Wales for a gentleman to assume “arms” but they must be unique and not a copy of another’s “arms” and it will at eventually be required to be formalised by the Sovereign or her heralds in lieu.

A Crest is part of a formal armorial achievement and cannot exist alone. In other words a Coat of Arms may exist without a Crest but a Crest cannot exist without the complementary Coat of Arms.

It is often stated that a Coat of Arms belongs to one person but this is not entirely accurate, although today it is commonplace.
A Coat of Arms was developed to identify a landowner in battle. As a result there is a tangible link between the person and the land he/she owns.
That being the case the Coat of Arms is as much linked to the land as it is to the name.
It is this link between the person and the land that distinguishes a man as a gentleman or nobleman.
A successful tradesman though today may be called a gentleman in reality is not (unless he/she has been ennobled by the sovereign).

The use of Coats of Arms as supplied by bucket shops is not only illegal but immoral also.

There is a very useful discussion under the title Heralds’ College and Prescription (starting on page 113 of the Ancestor, Volume VIII, January 1904 and carrying on in Vols. IX & X.).
Cheers
Guy
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Friday 25 July 14 16:09 BST (UK)
I'm delighted that I've no ennobled or arms-bearing ancestors at all. It's one fewer thing to have to find out! Whoopeee!
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: BushInn1746 on Wednesday 13 March 19 01:32 GMT (UK)
Most of these sites just list them without referencing them. I've known there is a crest for my surname for decades (from a stand at a fair), wonder how you find out to whom the crest was awarded?


Not all unique Family Seals and Crests are Armorial and therefore some are not part of a Coat of Arms.

 ----------

Arms are unique to a particular individual of that surname who was granted the Arms personally, some granted for a gracious Act toward, or in support of the Sovereign or Parliament.

I have seen quite a few different designs of the British HOOD Coat of Arms and my Father tells me that we don't have any entitlement or Grant from the Queen via Her Government Department to use any HOOD Arms.

Very few of us have Arms entitlement.

Mark
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: mirl on Wednesday 13 March 19 05:12 GMT (UK)
I think the only arms I'm allowed to use are the two I was born with.

;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Wednesday 13 March 19 16:18 GMT (UK)
Yes, I know that there are at least three variants of the Arms granted to one branch of my name, but each was to a SPECIFIC person - and I've no more right to flourish any of those three than a budgie has, just because my surname is the same, even though in one case it was a far-distant ancestor!
A crest is the twiddly bit atop the shield-shaped main bit, and that cannot exist unless there is a coat of Arms for it to be abstracted from. Crests, as earlier posters have mentioned, were used for family silver, cutlery, and signet / seal rings, where the whole image would have been impractical.
ALL these firms who flog coats of Arms / family tartans etc are simply selling you some souvenir with an attachment to the name. I really can't see the point of flourishing something you're not entitled to bear. And they make a good profit from it. Caveat Emptor!
The College of Heralds exists to (sell) sort out such issues and proofs formally, as well as to design and issue and verify new grants for people. I'm afraid I won't be petitioning them for a grant of Arms for me anytime soon.
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Mart 'n' Al on Wednesday 13 March 19 19:16 GMT (UK)
I don't know much about it but the Society for Creative Anachronism might be of interest.

https://www.sca.org

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Creative_Anachronism

Martin
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: whiteout7 on Wednesday 13 March 19 19:51 GMT (UK)
If you have a odd surname looking in Fairbairn's book of Crests of Families of Great Britain and Ireland sometimes turns up a description of a Crest

Volume I
https://archive.org/details/fairbairnsbookof01fair/page/n6

Volume II
https://archive.org/details/fairbairnsbookof02fair/page/n4

Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Mart 'n' Al on Wednesday 13 March 19 23:06 GMT (UK)
They are reall nicely scanned and OCR'd, and the images in volume 2 are amazing.

Martin
Title: Re: Free family crest downloads
Post by: Stephen J F Plowman on Thursday 14 March 19 15:32 GMT (UK)
Most of these sites just list them without referencing them. I've known there is a crest for my surname for decades (from a stand at a fair), wonder how you find out to whom the crest was awarded?

At the risk of advertising my post:

Topic: Looking for “Your” Coat of Arms - A few pointers
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,490335.0.html

Try point 2:

<i>2)   The Harleian Society’s Grantees of Arms:
Grantees of Arms to the end of the 17th century - http://www.archive.org/details/granteesofarmsna00fost
Grantees of Arms 1687 to 1898 Volume I - http://www.archive.org/details/granteesofarmsna66fost
Grantees of Arms 1687 to 1898 Volume II - http://www.archive.org/details/granteesofarmsna68fost
</i>